A CREWE mum is recovering from major surgery after donating part of her liver to save her baby daughter’s life.

Thirteen-month-old Imogen Daly suffered from biliary atresia, a disease of the liver.

Had it not been for the courage of her mum, Charlotte Rogers, she would have died.

Imogen’s dad, Sebastian Daly, of Betley, said: “Imogen needed a transplant so desperately we ended up having to go down the route of a living donor. Charlotte donated part of her liver.”

Both Charlotte, 34, and Imogen were in the operating theatre at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital for several hours.

“Charlotte went into theatre at about 8.30am and Imogen at about 11. There was a team of about 100 or so people involved,” said Sebastian. “Charlotte came round about 4pm and Imogen came round about a similar sort of time. They were then both in intensive care for about three days.”

Sebastian underwent the most stressful 24 hours of his life on that day, early in September.

Not only was his daughter undergoing major surgery but so was his partner.

“I kept thinking they were in theatre and there was nothing I could do,” he said. “I just put my faith in the team. It was pretty stressful, especially the first 24 hours but they’re recovering well. They were discharged from hospital within two weeks.”

Imogen was just nine weeks old when she was diagnosed with biliary atresia.

She didn’t have any bile ducts and so couldn’t break down fats from her diet.

Because she was still producing bile it was damaging her liver and her liver would eventually have failed.

Imogen had already spent much of her short life in hospital. She had been on the transplant list since March but no organ had become available.

Sebastian, who is a vet, said: “Parents aren’t always a match. Charlotte went through about three months of tests and scans to see if she was a match and also to reduce the risk to her.”

It’s now eight weeks since Charlotte and Imogen underwent surgery.

Charlotte, a vet, is unable to return to work at the Shrewsbury practice for six months.

Imogen has to stay indoors at the moment for risk of infection.

Sebastian, together with his family and friends, have spent much of their time since Imogen was diagnosed, fundraising for the Children’s Liver Disease Foundation (CLDF), which has given them a lot of support throughout their ordeal.

“People think liver disease is something you get when you’re older because of drinking too much but liver disease, as a whole, is quite common,” he said.

For more information about the foundation visit www.childliverdisease.org